Citizens exercising or Citizens' exercising? (on apostrophe rule)

[Bebop7]

I'm struggling with the sentence below related to apostrophe rule.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

I think that the main verb of the sentence is 'is', if then, 'exercising' should be the main subject. My question is why does apostrophe not appear after 's' of 'Citizens'? Because the noun 'Citizens' in this sentence should do as the possessive, and in order to do that the word requires apostrophe. Can anyone who are stronger in grammar explain it?

 

[teechar]

I think that the main verb of the sentence is 'is'.

That's right.

If so, then 'exercising' should be the main subject.

No. The subject is the noun phrase "citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble."

No apostrophe is needed.

 

[Bebop7]

That's right.


No. The subject is the noun phrase "citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble."
No apostrophe is needed.

I think that it is right to use 'c' as a capital letter. The source is from npr.org(http://www.npr.org/2017/01/30/51248...-trumps-immigration-ban-heartened-by-protests), and I think they should do proofread before publishing.

Can you break down the phrase "citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble" in detail? From my perspective, if no apostrophe, the sentence is seen as: [citizens(noun, as the subject of exercising their right) exercising(gerund, interchangeable as 'who exercise their right') their constitutional right to assemble(noun phrase, as the object of exercising)]
That is, if there is no apostrophe the 'is' should be changed to 'are' because 'citizens' is a plural noun.

 

[GoesStation]

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble is a singular noun phrase.

 

[Bebop7]

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble is a singular noun phrase.

I know it is a singular noun phrase. Nevertheless, a vagueness still remains to me on the grammar role of 'citizens' in the noun phrase. That is what I am really curious about.

I learned that if we want to indicate the subject of gerund we generally take the possessive form. For example, I am proud of your being my son. As you can see, in the noun phrase 'your being my son', 'you' is the subject of the verb 'being', and we turn 'you' to its possessive form 'your'.

 

[jutfrank]

I think that if you want to be very strict about grammatical correctness, then an apostrophe is required, for reasons you point out. However, many people are relaxed about this particular point, and even prefer the less 'correct', but more common way.

 

[jutfrank]

'exercising' can be seen as a participle modifying the noun 'Citizens'.

Would that not then make the subject Citizens instead of exercising?

 

[jutfrank]

Would that not then make the subject Citizens instead of exercising?

Yes, it would, if you used that analysis.

But Citizens is clearly not the subject so this analysis fails.

 

[jutfrank]

It clearly is the subject if we take 'exercising' to be be a participle. Of course, if we do that, then the verb needs to be 'are'.

After trying to get my head around this, I think it is possible to understand 'exercising' to be a participle modifying the noun Citizens and also for the verb to remain in the singular form is. The way I might justify this is by expanding the subject phrase to something like

[The phenomenon/picture of] Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble is...

as a way of showing the complete thought, thereby explaining the singular is and also nicely combining the plural citizens with the singular activity of exercising in one image.

 

[YAMATO2201]

My question is why does apostrophe not appear after 's' of 'Citizens'?

I am not a teacher.

(1) Do you mind my making a suggestion?
(2) Do you mind me making a suggestion?

(3) I'm annoyed about John's forgetting to pay.
(4) I'm annoyed about John forgetting to pay.

[From the Japanese translation of an old edition of Practical English Usage.]

 

[Bebop7]

Thank all of you for sharing your thoughts. And I wanted to say that though Piscean said his summary would have little interest or value to learners, it is really helpful and valuable to me. I've confused of a gerund and a participle(because they both have the verb + ing form) but now I can see the difference through the comparison.